


uncharted territory

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Series: Four-Color Love (A Comic Book Romance) [4]
Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 17:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/827032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>dracoaries asked: Stuart’s got several sketchbooks filled with drawings of Raj (a lot of nudes), and Raj finds them. When he tells Stuart he found them, Stuart’s embarrassed (but not mad).</p>
            </blockquote>





	uncharted territory

“Hold it, Raj. Just because we’re dating doesn’t mean you get to bring your dog into the store.” Stuart holds his hand up as Raj pulls the door open, Cinnamon curled against his chest, her eyes bright, her tongue hanging out.

Raj gives Stuart a plaintive look. “But it’s pouring. I can’t leave her outside.”

Stuart can’t contend with two lots of pleading eyes. “Oh, all right. But if she makes a mess, you’re cleaning it up.”

“Promise,” Raj says breezily, and holds the door open for Howard, who comes in right on his heels and makes a beeline for the new releases rack.

“It’s so weird to hear you guys mention dating,” he says as he starts riffling through the latest  _X-Men_.

Stuart opens his mouth, but Raj gets there first. “Dude, it’s been a month. Get used to it.” He sets Cinnamon down on the floor and she starts sniffing around, acquainting herself with the smells of the comic book store: corn chips and geek and paper and ink.

Penny and Sheldon come in then and Stuart loses track of where the dog is as he gets out Sheldon’s pull list and double-checks that everything’s where it should be. Raj tries to distract him with a kiss but Stuart’s very aware of the other three and bats him away.

“You know, you don’t have to push him away on our account,” Penny says once Raj is safely distracted by pulling Cinnamon off the plushies. “We’re used to much more high-level PDAs from Howard.” For someone only a quarter of the way through four months without her boyfriend, she looks surprisingly chirpy, especially considering that she's been roped in as Sheldon's babysitter.

“Maybe I’d like to maintain a basic level of professionalism in my workplace,” Stuart almost snaps.

“Okay, fair enough.” She looks around for Sheldon and Howard. Howard’s snuck into the back room; Sheldon is immersed in reading the rules on the sign-up sheet for the next Warlords tournament. (Wil’s already signed up; Stuart isn’t sure whether Sheldon hating Wil or liking Wil is preferable as far as Warlords is concerned, especially since Raj has been hinting fairly heavily that maybe Sheldon and Wil should be partners this time around so that Stuart and Raj can team up.)

“Howard, you have two minutes or I’m dragging you out of there by the hair,” Raj says, pitching his voice toward the back room door.

“Don’t worry, I know you want alone time with your boyfriend,” Howard calls back. It doesn’t sound nasty, just teasing, but Stuart blushes anyway. Something nudges against his ankle and he looks down to see Cinnamon looking up at him, tail wagging. He picks her up, grateful for the distraction, and then almost immediately has to put her back down as Sheldon comes up to the counter to get his comics.

Eventually Howard comes out of the back room with a handful of manga and three out of the four of them leave; Raj, of course, stays, immediately launching into a somewhat confused list of restaurants in the area. Stuart figures out that Raj is asking him out for dinner and what the hell, business has been pretty quiet in the evenings of late.

“Don’t you have to be at Sheldon’s at eight for Halo night?” he asks, starting his circuit of the store to straighten things up.

“I asked Penny to sit in for me. I felt bad only doing things with you when it was convenient for Sheldon.”

“That’s really thoughtful.”

“That’s what boyfriends are for,” Raj says with a quick smile.

There’s a papery rustling thump from behind the counter and Cinnamon backs out with a guilty look on her face. Stuart starts over there but Raj catches his arm and stops him.

“I said I’d clean up if she made a mess. I’ll get it.”

It’s probably only someone’s comic pulls anyway, and they’re all labeled, so Stuart goes back to tidying up. “So, is that what we are? Boyfriends?”

“I guess… a month of dating is long enough, isn’t it?” comes the muffled voice from behind the counter. “Or is it too soon.”

“Um, I have no idea. I haven’t been anyone’s boyfriend for a while.”

Only silence greets this comment and Stuart thinks nothing of it until he hears the subdued gasp from Raj’s general direction and realizes what else he keeps behind the counter that might rustle-thump onto the floor; his sketchbooks. Maybe it’s a bad idea to have them at work at all, but he gets so bored sometimes and there are only so many times one can rearrange the plushies or polish the custom belt buckles.

“This is me,” Raj says, and Stuart has enough time to think  _Oh shit_  before Raj rises from behind the counter like a – well, not like a kraken from the deeps, because he’s too cute for that, but. Something, anyway.

“Um. Pay no attention to the drawings behind the counter?”

Raj ignores him, setting the sketchbook on the counter to get a better look. Cinnamon headbutts Stuart’s leg for attention, unmindful of the damage she has wrought, because Stuart gives it about three seconds before Raj calls him a pervert and storms out.

“These are good.”

“Um.”

“ _Really_  good.”

“Don’t turn the page.”

“…”

“…you turned the page, didn’t you.”

Raj just looks at him and Stuart closes his eyes, but that’s a mistake because he can picture with crystal clarity the crisp graphite lines on the page Raj is currently up to. Raj in jeans and nothing else; Raj barefoot and looking straight ahead, daring the viewer to remark on his half-nudity, which might as well be full nudity given how low the jeans are slung on his hips, not to mention the thin line of hair beckoning the way straight down into his groin. Stuart knows the hair’s right, at least; he’s seen Raj in just a towel a couple of times now and his artist’s memory picks up on all the small things.

“Raj,” he says, eyes still shut, because now opening them might be worse.

“What.”

“Don’t turn the page.”

Because over the page is where the towel drops, where reality turns to imagination, and a month of dating might be enough for the boyfriend word but surely it cannot be enough for—

He hears the paper rustle and wonders if he can take Cinnamon hostage to prevent Raj from ever mentioning this to anyone else.

“Hmmm,” Raj hums. “Not bad.” There’s the sound of footsteps and Stuart has a second to be aware of just how stupid he must look standing in the middle of the store with his eyes closed before Raj’s arms close around him, warm and familiar and safe. “You missed a few little details.” His lips nuzzle against Stuart’s and Stuart almost opens his eyes out of surprise. “I could show you, if you want…”

“I thought we were going out for dinner,” Stuart says, castigating himself for being an idiot as soon as the words are out.

Raj just laughs. “We can get takeout.” His lips are brushing Stuart’s in an infuriating almost-kiss.

“You, um. We…”

“I have a birthmark on my right hip, but I’m not telling you what shape it is.”

Stuart lets out an agonized little noise and finally lifts his hands to pull Raj into an actual kiss. Raj’s tongue slips straight into his mouth, as if he’s been waiting for some barrier between them to break, and Stuart leaves one hand in Raj’s hair and runs the other down to rest it on Raj’s right hip, hooking a fingertip through his belt loop and holding him close. It’s Raj’s turn to make a surprised sound and Stuart smiles into the kiss. They’re both used to Raj leading the way through the twists and turns of their budding relationship; Stuart is finding that he likes taking control once in a while.

“I think it’s closing time,” he says into Raj’s mouth.

“Sounds good to me.” Raj’s breathing is uneven; the straight fall of the front of his pants is ruined by a bulge in the fabric, and Stuart thinks  _I did that_  without immediately freaking out.

He puts his sketchbooks back and then reconsiders and takes them into the storage area, going up on tiptoe to push them onto one of the higher shelves out of the way. If it happened once it could happen again, and he doubts his average customer would be nearly as good about it as Raj has been.

Raj is holding Cinnamon when Stuart walks back into the store. Cinnamon looks quite innocent now; Raj, not so much.

“I called ahead for Chinese. It’ll be ready by the time we get there.”

“Good plan.”

“So what else is in that sketchbook of yours?”

“Maybe I’ll let you see once I know it’s anatomically correct,” Stuart retorts, pretty pleased with himself despite feeling his whole face go red because did he really just say that out loud?

“Maybe I’ll pose for you.”

“Exhibitionist.”

“Voyeur.”

Cinnamon barks as if to tell them to shut up. Raj fusses her into her car seat and then drives five miles over the speed limit to the Chinese place, one hand on Stuart’s thigh all the way.


End file.
